Cooling tower visible plume rise analyses by time integrated photographs

Cooling tower plume rise measurements are required for evaluation and validation of cooling tower plume rise models. In August 1981, five cooling tower plume defining experiments were conducted at the Geysers Geothermal Area in California during both valley nocturnal drainage flow conditions, and diurnal limited vertical mixing conditions on a mountain ridge. Sequential 300-s time integrated photographs of the plumes were made for several hours during each experiment. Time lapse movies were also made during the daytime experiments. Meteorological conditions were measured during all experimental periods by tethersonde and rawinsonde. The time integrated photographs have been analyzed to provide values of plume rise heights vs time for each of the experiments. Predictions by one version of the Argonne National Laboratory plume rise model are within a factor of 2 of the plume rise calculated from the photographs.